Beginnings
by Amalythea
Summary: Madara wasn't always in it for the Book of Friends. While watching over Natsume, he reminisces about when he and Reiko met... And an old promise that he made to her.
1. Chapter 1

Natsume was always too nice. He always was too naive. He always was too innocent. That's how Madara viewed the kid as he walked down the neighborhood streets towards his house. It was Madara's job to keep him safe. At least, that's what he and Natsume had "agreed" on. Once Natsume died, Madara was promised the Book of Friends, a powerful book filled with the names of the youkai, written by none other than Natsume's grandmother, Reiko.

Of course, Madara hadn't always been interested in the book. If he was, what stopped him from eating the boy? Nothing did. Exactly nothing stopped him. It was simple nothing that froze Madara in his tracks every time he even considered killing Natsume.

As his encounter with Enkou had taught him a long time ago, Madara wasn't always interested in the Book of Friends. In fact, it was the reason why he was even involved with Natsume in the first place. Well, why he was involved with both of them.

A long time ago, which was the blink of an eye in youkai time, Madara had been lounging about in the forest before his sealing, basking in the warm sunlight. He recalled how it had heated his beautiful white pelt.

His tail had apparently been hanging out into a path through the forest that led to a shrine. Any regular human would have gone right through, but Madara eventually heard a female voice calling out.

"Move your fluffy ass!"

Startled by the scornful voice, Madara whipped around, his first instinct to capture whoever had said that.

As he lunged for the person standing on the path, he snapped to her left and upwards. The girl's mistake. His tail blocked her from moving forwards, and his face from going up or to the right, which forced her down to the left... Right into Madara's waiting paw!

He quickly pinned her to the ground. "Why you impudent little-!"

The girl was calm there, which froze him mid-sentence. She didn't struggle, or cry out, or even look at him. Her cheek rested on one hand as she remained in an indifferent mask. The youkai sighed and lifted his paw. She just remained there on the ground.

"So much for that idea." She commented casually.

Madara, his curiosity having been peaked, laid down on the ground beside her, resting his massive head alongside her. It was as long down his snout as she was tall.

"Idea?" He asked.

She sighed. "I'm collecting the names of the youkai. I was gonna challenge you, but you'd beat me easy. You know some good battle tricks." The girl rolled onto her back. "My name is Reiko, by the way. Natsume Reiko."


	2. Chapter 2

Madara had started meeting with Reiko daily. Every so often she would miss a day, or be late an hour, and every so often the book she carried around got one page thicker. She was a nice girl, and beautiful at that. Her face was flawless, and she held herself high. Reiko was a woman to be respected, even among youkai.

Every day when they met, they would have small duels at a lakeside in the forest. He would teach her the techniques of the youkai and she would teach him the techniques of the humans. Both learned from one another. Reiko took away knowledge of how to win battles from their meetings, since she learned how youkai thought in a fight. Madara took away knowledge of how humans think, so that if he ever needed to escape a powerful exorcist he would know how. It benefited both of them more than they expected, or even really noticed. Each day of training ended at sunset, at which point they had stopped fighting for any number of hours. Reiko leaned into Madara's fur, snuggling up to keep warm as the sun's hot rays were swallowed up by the horizon and cold air enveloped the forest. He would walk back with her sometimes, all the way to her home. Her parents seemed nice enough. One of them - Madara assumed it was the mother - always came to greet Reiko at the door. On nights when she stayed out after dark, the mother would hug her, and Madara could sometimes faintly hear the worry in her voice. He always chuckled to himself when he heard Reiko laugh in return saying "it's nothing" or "I'm fine", or sometimes even "I'm sorry to worry you". Her father would sometimes come instead of her mother, however. He would occasionally pick her up and laugh happily, or sometimes show her something that made them both giggle. Madara was glad that Reiko was at least happy at home. When she was out in the woods she seemed to be so alone. So distant. So cold. It was amazing how happy the elegant youkai would get simply watching the shadows move inside the door before he had to return to his shrine in the woods.

One morning, after three months of meetings, Reiko approached Madara menacingly. "I've been practicing at home!" She called out. "If I beat you, you write your name in my book. If you beat me, do whatever! How does that sound?"

Madara scoffed and laid down casually, not in the least bit concerned by how aggressive she was being today. "Do whatever? That doesn't sound very interesting. I'm not going to eat you, so what does that leave? Throw you across the lake? You leap into the water all the time on your own."

Reiko's expression hardened. "Come on!" She said. Madara felt somewhat obligated to his student, so he stood up and faced her.

"That's Sensei to you." He stated, quickly launching himself at her, mouth open.

As he anticipated, Reiko leapt into the air and planted a foot on his muzzle, pushing down. The strength of her foot sent her rocketing upwards and over him, forcing his jaw to the ground.

Madara flicked his tail at her, smacking her away through the air. He caught her with his paws before she could land, but Reiko lashed out with a foot and kicked him in the nose. As he pulled his paws away from her and flinched, the girl neatly backflipped before him. Madara lashed out with his paw to bat her aside and she leapt back. He winced as he felt something warm and wet crowning the tip of his claw.

Madara looked closer. There, right underneath her left eye, was a small scrape. From the look of it, the mark would leave a scar.

Reiko backed up. "So I guess you've won." She smiled at him.

Madara stopped and sat down, facing her. "I don't want to accept this victory," he said. "Not when I've ruined your beautiful face."

Reiko laughed. "Well I'm not going to take your name."

"You should."

"I'm not going to!"

There was a moment of silence as the two stared intently into one another's eyes before both the human and the youkai erupted into fits of laughter. When the giggling died down, Reiko looked at him in a more serious way.

"Fine then. If you won't accept victory, how about we make a deal."

The youkai's ears swiveled forwards as his interest peaked. "A deal?"

Reiko nodded. "If I ever come back to you, protect me. In fact, if I ever have a child who comes to you, protect them in my place. Or a grandchild. Or a great-grandchild, even. Your job is to defend the holder of the Book of Friends in return for 'ruining my face'."

Madara huffed indignantly. "And if you don't have any descendants?"

"Then the book is yours." She smiled at him. "I wouldn't trust anyone but the one who helped me make the book to keep it for me."

Madara smiled and laid down, resting his chin on the ground. Reiko came and leaned back in his fur as she always did.

"Deal."


End file.
